Slow and Small: The Other Action Plan For Solving the Climate Crisis Now
By Charlotte Mallo
Slow and Small: The Other Action Plan For Solving the Climate Crisis Now
By Charlotte Mallo
As much as I love environmental literature, reading “Collapse”, “Silent Spring” or “Losing Earth” was not helping my climate anxiety: technologies take time to generate an impact at scale, and need the right political framework to avoid generating negative externalities. As a European, I also know that political collaboration and policymaking can be a long-lasting and fragile effort.
In parallel, I was discovering behavioral economics. This path led me to understand that change is hard. Because humans love stability and routine, it is hard for us to pick up good habits, and harder to let go of things we love or we aspire to. Behavioral change is one of the most difficult endeavors because it requires awareness, intention, resilience, and takes longer than we would like.
But I also learned that we are capable of nudging ourselves, that making changes to our own behaviors is something that we are mostly in control of, and most importantly, that behavioral change can happen at scale.
The role of marginalized groups in behavior change
Looking at the changes I’ve made in my lifestyle, they all have one thing in common: people. People who inspired me, motivated me, and encouraged me along the way. They might be officially called ‘community organizers’, but most of the time, they don’t have a title, it might not be their actual job, and they are seldom asking for recognition and fame for their work.
Most of the time, these communities are created and sustained by underrepresented groups. Their resilience and groundwork lay the foundation for major change to happen, and the benefits often extend far beyond.
Numerous examples come to my mind: Black women did the groundwork for decades in Georgia to turn the state Democratic in 2020. After Mexico’s International Women’s Conference in 1975, major women’s rights regulations and measures were taken in many nations, including Western nations, although the movement was mainly driven by intersectional feminists coming from the Eastern bloc and ‘the global south’.
LGBT rights improved after the community allied with British mine workers during the 1984-85 strike (LGSM). Disability activist groups like the Independent Living Movement and the Rolling Quads enabled the curb-cut, among other regulations, which now benefit anyone walking on the streets in most countries.
Making the world a better place begins with changing ourselves
These groups have achieved change at scale starting locally, ramping up steadily, and engaging everyone in their cause - including people in positions of power.
In the world of climate tech, solutions will better address the needs of everyone when decision-makers will be intentional about investing more dollars in underrepresented founders.
At ClimateRaise - an initiative that connects underrepresented founders to sources of capital, starting with women founders and everyone who identifies as such, including trans women or gender non-conforming individuals - our investor community almost reaches gender parity, and men ask for as many introductions as women. Lots of efforts still need to be made, but this indicates that some behaviors have started to shift.
The Cool Blocks Challenge is another proof that behavioral change at scale is possible to make cities more resilient, livable, and sustainable. In the pilot cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, the program achieved an average household carbon reduction of 32% with 25 actions taken across eight topics. They accomplished this by reinventing their relationship with neighbors, citizens, and the city itself through community empowerment.
If we envision a different world for tomorrow, getting there starts with changing our own behaviors. How? Here is an action plan.
The action plan: join, do, show
Join a group or community: Joining a group is the best way to start changing our own behavior. Mutual accountability makes it easier to take action (Phone banking by yourself is awful, doing it on a zoom call with Changemakers or EVP volunteers is a fun experience), and seeing like-minded people act on a common goal, wards off disinterest and cynicism. Ask your city or Google about organizations nearby.
Start small, ramp up steadily: Changing is hard, so we want it to be as imperceptible and as sustainable as possible. Removing barriers and triggers and rewarding yourself is key in picking up and maintaining good habits. Most vegans will tell you that it took them years to slowly shift their diet patterns. Also, no blaming, no shaming - we all have our flaws and constraints.
Talk about achievements and plans: Because social norms change when people see and hear about others doing things differently, talking about and showing your achievements makes a difference (Katharine Hayhoe talks about this here). For example, if you were to build a watershed garden, start with your front yard - it will encourage your neighbors to redesign their yard too.
What’s next?
Since I finished reading Collapse, some of my personal achievements include quitting meat, using delivery services less than once a month, eating less processed foods, phone banking with the EVP, promoting circularity and food security in Culver City two hours a week, and joining the cool blocks challenge September cohort.
For 2022, I plan to buy cheese only once a month (this sounds harder than anything), use zero plastic bathroom products, build a pollinator-friendly watershed garden, and create my own compost. Let’s check-in in December!
✍️The Draw-down
Weekly climate art! This week, we’re featuring Nicole Kelner, check her out on twitter.
🔎Fresh Takes
Each week, The Regenerates will surface a climate campaign or stories to be told—elevating why it works (or doesn't) from a communications and marketing lens.
Merrill takes a shot at the Goop-ification of self-care with their “More Less” campaign, encouraging women to drop the face masks and lace-up to head outside instead. We love the mindset shift this campaign encourages—nature as health and wellness—and we’d love to see more outdoor brands flex how they can invite people into stories in a more personal, approachable way. Read more
📢Climate Action of the Week
Want to do more? Sign up for the next Climate Changemakers Hour of Action here.
This week, we're directly urging our members of Congress to ban new fossil fuel projects both on public lands and offshore. Fortunately, there's already legislation introduced that would accomplish that. Use our advocacy tool to email, call, and Tweet at your Senators and Representatives.
🍿The Leanback
Learn about Compound Foods this week with Pique Action’s mini-documentaries.
🤑Re-Fi Round-Up
Learn about re-fi news around the world from Toucan Protocol’s team.
This week, Osmosis announced that it had offset its carbon footprint with the help of Regen Network. Osmosis is a blockchain built with the Cosmos development kit that allows people to trade IBC-compatible (InterBlockchain Communication Protocol) tokens. This was the first time a blockchain had handled the carbon reduction process entirely on-chain; a proposal to go carbon neutral was submitted to the community, it was subsequently voted on and passed, and then on-chain carbon credits were purchased.
Osmosis offset ten times its estimated carbon emissions. This factor was chosen to protect against any potential under-calculations, but it’s most likely that this offset will actually make Osmosis carbon negative! Blockchains pushing to lower their carbon footprint has been an emergent trend this year, and we are all here for it.
🎙Startup Series
This week, Jason caught up with Steven Henderson, CEO, and Mike Carter, COO, of Fleetzero. Fleetzero is building battery-electric cargo ships that operate with 5X higher net margins than fossil fuel ships. They are increasing the efficiency of existing diesel ships by converting them to battery-electric while pioneering innovation with the MVE7 - an electric ship designed for trans-pacific cargo delivery. Fleetzero's battery technology is the only pathway to decarbonizing the $1.3 trillion shipping industry without a green premium. Read more about them in our MCJ Collective investment announcement, here.
✨ Highlights
🤝MCJ is hiring! We’re looking for a Content and Social Media Lead to focus on all things MCJ Podcast and newsletter! Check out the job description here.
Climate Jobs
For more open positions, check out the #j-climatejobs channel in MCJ Slack.
Climate Finance Solutions (CFS) is hiring for multiple roles, including a Project Manager, a Grant Writer, and a Grants and Operations Administrator
Elephant Energy is hiring a Project Manager
Charm Industrial is looking for a Junior Recruiter
Heirloom is building a Talent Team. Roles: Talent Lead, Tech Recruiter, and Coordinator/ Ops
BetterClimate is hiring for a Strategic Operations Lead to help shape the way BetterClimate partners with customers and deepens impact
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